Neil deGrasse Tyson IDs Superman’s home star system

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Anyone with a passing familiarity with comic books is aware that Superman comes from the planet Krypton, which orbited a nearby red star. The yellow light from our sun is supposedly the source of Superman’s powers. If the Man of Steel was not a fictional character, is there even a star out there that matches up with the story? The Internet’s favorite astronomer, Neil deGrasse Tyson, has pinpointed one.

The only information we have about the Kryptonian star is its red color. That means we’re looking for either a red giant, or a red dwarf. Tyson ruled out red giants based on two criteria. First, there are no red giants close enough to fit with Superman’s backstory. Second, red giants are a later phase in stellar development and have very short life spans. That means that there would not be time for Kryptonian civilization to develop around such a star.

With the list of candidates narrowed somewhat, Tyson searched out nearby red dwarf stars. Red dwarfs are smaller and cooler than our sun, so in this scenario Krypton would have been orbiting it much more closely. These stars are also incredibly stable, potentially burning for hundreds of billions of years (longer than the universe has existed), so there would have been plenty of time for Krypton to develop.

The decision to go with a red dwarf afforded Tyson plenty of choices — this is the most common type of star in the Milky Way. The eventual winner was a star with the catchy name LHS 2520. It is about 27 light years away in the constellation Corvus, so you can see it if you have a telescope handy.

Neil deGrasse Tyson will be appearing in Action Comics Superman #14 to deliver this news to Superman himself. From what we know before release, Superman visits New York’s Hayden Planetarium where Tyson helps him find his home star system. It’s a fun crossover of real life into comics.